


May I Be Excused?

by idiotlord



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Lila Rossi Lies, M/M, Marinette Dupain-Cheng-centric, Other, her struggles are real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-01-02 22:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21168761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotlord/pseuds/idiotlord
Summary: Being Ladybug, Marinette has to make up excuses to leave and transform. Usually it works but she’s starting to run out of believable reasons to use and her teachers are getting tired of her leaving in the middle of class. Even her classmates are starting to get suspicious. Just how far is Marinette willing to go through to do her secret hero job?A series of excuses and their unfortunate consequences.





	1. “I’m menstruating!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Period Excuse.

Being Ladybug has been an incredible experience in Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s life. It taught her how to be a confident person and stand up to her bully of many years, Chloe. It encouraged her to be more open to interacting with others and make friends. All these changes has greatly improved her once quiet and lonely life. 

But it has also given her challenges too. Not just physically dueling magical super villains or emotionally challenges her integrity of right and wrong. She also has to mentally struggle in figuring out how to use her Lucky Charms to defeat the akuma, protecting her identity from everyone in order to protect them from Hawkmoth, and worst of all is coming up with excuses to get her out of class in order to do all of that. 

She’s already a bad liar who can’t hold a poker face to save her life, but now she’s going to _ need _to in order to keep her life. Sometimes she’s even tempted to ask her crime fighting partner, Chat Noir if he’s going through the same struggles as her?

\--- 

It was just another typical day in class at Collège Françoise Dupont, when Marinette coincidentally noticed smoke outside the window. Usually, she would get notifications on her phone whenever there’s an akuma attacking the city and rushed afterwards. This is one of the few times she’s able to find out first before the alarm. But it didn’t lessen her anxiety.

So while her classmates were calmly listening to their teacher and taking notes, Marinette is fidgeting in her seat, debating on whether or not she should try sneak out now while everyone is distracted or risk catching everyone’s attention by raising her hand to as for permission. She’s aware that her teacher isn’t one who likes to be interrupted in her class and Marinette really can’t get sent to the principal’s office again. 

Her nerves were such a mess that her knees are bouncing and the pencil in her hand is tapping so much that it’s slightly shaking the table. Her seatmate, Alya obviously noticed the shaking and tries to warn her with subtle pokes before below the table but the poor girl was too lost in her thoughts to notice. Slowly but surely it begins to catch others attention as well as their testy teacher. 

With a hand slamming down the podium at the front of the class, Ms. Mendeleiev’s angry voice echoed in the room, “Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Would you like to explain to me why you are disrupting my class?”

The girl flinched when all eyes are on her as she realized she’s been caught. She was only able to stutter out, “I-I need to go… to the bathroom…”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Oh? And what’s your excuse this time?” 

“Uh… well… i-t’s my um…”

“Well?”

“My… U-UTERUS!”

“I beg your pardon!”

“T-The inner lining of my uterus is shedding earlier than expected this month and I _ really _need to go now before I discharge everything out!”

There was a pregnant silence in the class. A red faced Marinette meets Ms. Mendeleiv’s stern eyes. The class watched and waited to see the stand off. Their teacher was the first to speak.

“What phase are you currently in?” she asked seriously.

As if a part of her brain is suddenly activated, Marinette let’s it lead her words. “M-Menstrual phase.”

“Primary dysmenorrhea level?”

“O-On a scale of 1-5, it’s currently 3.5. N-Normal 4 at b-beginning.”

“Time of occurrence?”

“S-Seven minutes ago.”

Ms. Mendeleiv continues to stare her down, small droplets of sweat begins to build around her brow as she felt her heart beating against her chest as the fear of getting caught lying is constricting blood from flowing to her head while her cheeks still burn in humiliation. What an oxymoron of a feeling. 

A few seconds that felt like years later, the teacher gestures to the door with a nod. “You’re excused.”

“T-Thank you, Ms. Mendeleiv!” Marinette practically screamed out in relief before she booked it out of the room at top speed.

Their teacher turned back to the blackboard to continue the lecture, ignorant of how her students are currently feeling. All the girls looked shocked and cringed or shudder in empathy, most of the boys appeared confused and askance to each other, and the few boys that understood the situation tried not to make direct eye contact and hide their own embarrassed red faces. 

As for the akuma, they were notified on their phones about 15 minutes later was brutally taken down quick by a surprisingly aggressive Ladybug and tardy Chat Noir. When asked, the heroes only responded with a “no comment”. 

And for the next couple of days that week, the girls in her class has been quietly passing by Marinette’s desk to drop in to check on her “status” and inquire if she needs any extra sanitation pads or tampons among other home remedies. And the boys either avoid her or awkwardly but kindly ask if she’s okay without making any eye contact. She was very close to tears when Adrien gifted her with some chocolate, stating that he heard that it “helps for some girls”. Out of joy or mortification, she can’t tell. 

Ironically, her monthly period occurred at the beginning of next week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who got back in the fandom from Season 2-3 and dug up their old unfinished fic ideas from 3 years ago? Hello, Darkness, my old friends.  
Please comment and critique if you'd like. Or give me a fun excuse I might use in the next chapters. Thank you.
> 
> "If you had to get out of a situation (to secretly transform), what would you say?"


	2. “I’m addicted to smoking?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Smoking Excuse

Marinette jumped down from swinging around the corner of a tall building before landing behind a dumpster in a dark alley of a tavern. Her transformation disappeared in a burst of red glitter within seconds and Tikki flew out and fell into her hands. Before either could say a word, they heard someone nearby.

Ducking behind the dumpster again, she waited as a bar worker walked out the back door and leaned against the opposite wall. Apparently, it’s his break time and from the sound of his grumbles, he’s not in a good mood. Marinette peeked out from her hiding spot to see the man tugging and digging through his clothes and pockets, cursing when he couldn’t find it. Finally he found it – a pack of cigarettes and cheap lighter – and shook one out to pull it off with his mouth but before he could even flick the lighter, the back door slammed opened again as another person started yelling.

“What the hell are you doing here? Get back in there! The boss is looking for you!”

The man cursed loudly as he takes the unlit cigarette, pack and lighter aggressively into his back pocket. He must’ve been very angry because he was so distracted with yelling and complaining to the other co-worker that he didn’t notice the cigarette pack missing his pocket and dropped quietly on the ground. After a few minutes of silence, Marinette stood up from around the dumpster to leave but not before she stopped and picked up the items.

“Marinette, what are you doing? Don’t tell me you’re actually going to keep that!” Tikki nearly screamed in her ear.

“What? No! I know how bad smoking can do to my health. And Papa really hates the smell of it.”

“So throw it away! We’re next to a trash can.” She pointed out the dumpster.

The girl was about to do just that when her phone rang a familiar tune. Pulling her phone, she checked to see over five missed calls and over a dozen text messages from Alya reminding her of their important exam today. “Oh no! I forgot about the test! I was supposed to meet up with Alya at lunch to study before it! Now I’m already late!” 

Shoving everything into her little purse, she quickly dashed out of the alley and tries to sprint as fast as she can go back to school. Tikki had to hold onto her shirt collar to keep from flying off at the speed the girl was going. “But, the cigarette-!”

“I’ll throw it away later! I can’t be tardy again!”

Tapping her foot impatiently, Alya tries to do her best to memorize the review notes she has in front of her but her anger towards her best friend bailing on her was still nagging at the back of her head. She eyed her phone from the side and checked to see if she got any new massage. Nope, nothing. No new messages from Marinette. She frowned in annoyance as she shoved everything into her bag when the bell rang for the end of the lunch period and the teacher enters the room and orders everyone to clear their desk to get ready for the test. 

Seconds later, Marinette finally makes an appearance and rushed to her seat, babbling apologies and excuses that their teacher waved off and starts to send the tests out to their tablet. Alya pokes at her exhausted and disheveled friend to get her attention and show her that she’s not happy. She gives her a silent look that says “we need to talk” in which Marinette responds back with her guilty look that promises to do whatever she wants as an apology but “after class”. Not satisfied but sufficed with the answer, she turned to focus on the test.

The second the school bell rang, the teacher orders everyone to stop writing, to send their tests to her, and let them leave when they’ve done so. Students begin to pack their belongings and rush to the door, eager to leave school. Marinette being one of those students follow suit but instead of going to the exit, she makes a stop to her locker where she keeps her back up cookies for her Kwami. Since they were late, Marinette wasn’t able to feed her little partner and knew after the workout during lunch, she really needs to recharge.

Just as she closes her purse after dropping the cookies inside, she was suddenly pressed against her locker as she found herself caged in by her best friend.

“Alya! H-Hey!” she yelped in surprise, clenching her little purse to her chest. “W-What’s up?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Her friend glared at her, the frown back in full force. “What’s with you lately?! You don’t reply back to my messages, you’re bailing on me every time we promised to hang, and now you’re trying to sneak off again!”

“M-Me? Sneak off? Pff- no! I was just uh - you know, getting my… stuff! Y-Yeah, like my... n-notes from my locker.” 

“Speaking of notes, did you forget that we’re supposed to go over our notes together? You know, like what we’d planned!”

“I-I know. I just… had something… uh, something came up?” she tried.

“Oh really? Something so important that you couldn’t even text me back? You know, your _ best friend _?”

Marinette was panicking inside as she tries to come up with other reasons to explain herself to her friend without revealing that she had to stop another akuma attack during lunch break and didn’t had a chance to check her phone until it was too late. She opened her mouth and was relieved when she heard the group of kids around them loudly leave the room announcing they’re going home, giving her the perfect excuse to leave.

“A-Ah! Looks like school’s over and I just remembered that I had to help my parents with the shop after school today.” she said in a rushed tone, aiming to subtly scoot around Alya to get to the door. “So I’m just gonna go and talk to you lat-”

”No! We’re going to talk about this now! What are you trying to hide from me?” Alya grabbed her wrist with the plan to drag her out.

Not expecting her friend to get so aggressive, Marinette lost her grip on her purse and with the top still unclasped, the contents inside fell out. For a moment, Marinette had a scary thought that Tikki might fall out but instead, it was the crumpled pack of cigarettes and plastic lighter. It cluttered to the floor.

The two stared at the fallen objects in frozen horror. Marinette quickly bent down to pick it up and hold it against her front in an attempt to hide it before someone else could walk in the locker room and see it. Unbeknownst to her, from Alya’s perspective, her mind worked out a different narrative than Marinette’s and thought of something… more shady.

Marinette glanced around the room to make sure that they are alone with no one to hear their conversation. When she deemed it safe, she turned her blue eyes to Alya and quickly blurts out, “It’s not what it looks like!”

“Oh my god.” Alya covered her mouth and looked at her with accusing eyes.

“I can explain!”

“Oh my god!”

“If you’ll just let me go for a few minutes-”

“Oh my god, Marinette, are you crazy!” Alya finally blew up. She snatched the items from Marinette’s hands while she’s distracted and violently slam them into the trash can so hard that it reached the bottom with a clank. “You know Paris has a ban in smoking for years now. Do you know what would happen if the cops caught you with this? You could get arrested! You might even go to jail! And don’t get me started on what your _ parents _ would do if they know!” 

Marinette, frozen in shock and confusion as the young journalist grabbed her shoulders and shook her furiously that she can feel her brain knocking against her skull. Alya hissed in her face before it was her turn to look around to make sure no one was watching them as she literally drags her friend out of the locker room to behind the building and bush. 

Alone again, she pinned her friend and demanded, “Who gave those to you?! Were you pressured to do it? How long? Those things are poison, Marinette! Poison! You can get long term illnesses! Lung cancer! Heart attacks! Air pollution! You can literally die, Marinette!”

“I-I’m sorry, Alya.” Shaken by the others words, Marinette put her arms around her friend and embraced her. Her heart warmed at how much the other girl cares for her and she wants to show her how much she appreciates and loves her friend by tightening her hold. “I’m sorry for making you worry. I-I’ll quit. For you. I promise.”

“You better!” She sniffled, pulling back enough to glare. “Because I’m going to breath-check you every day until I’m completely convinced!”

“Wait- what? Everyday?” Marinette gasped. “I-Isn’t that a little extreme? I gave you my word.”

“Like you gave me your word to not keep secrets like this? Not a chance! From now on, I’m your parole officer! So you better stay clean, little lady!”

Marinette lets out a yelp and held out her hands as she reluctantly accepted all of Alya’s terms and rules. While it’s going to be a little tough to hide the fact that she’s Ladybug for now, she’s just more than willing to keep her best friend happy. Even though she’s very pushy and bossy, it’s just her way to show that she cares deeply. And Marinette can’t help but thank her good luck to have her as a best friend.

So the next day when she arrived at school, she allowed Alya to check through her book bag and pat her down like a security officer by the steps of the school entrance. Even with passing students giving them strange looks, it didn’t stop the blogger from her actions and Marinette just try to ignore them despite the embarrassed blush staining her cheeks. Tikki had to burrow herself into one of Marinette’s pigtails while the other girl go through each pocket of her purse and quickly sneak back into it when Alya was done and moved to the next bag. 

“Okay, looks like your bags are clear.” She declared with satisfaction before tapping Marinette’s cheek. “Breath test. Open.”

A dark brow rose above the pair of blue eyes that asks ‘are you serious?’ but does as told, nonetheless. Leaning in, she sniffed to make sure she didn’t detect any hint of tobacco. When she smell nothing, she reaches in her own bag to pull out something. “Good. You’ve been a good girl today. I’m proud of you!”

Marinette rolls her eyes. “Thanks, officer Césaire, can we go in now? I think the whole student body thinks we’re weirdos now. If there are strange rumors popping up about us, I’m blaming-mmh! Alya!”

Alya unwrapped the lollipop she got from her bag and shoved the candy into her friend’s mouth. “That’s your treat for being a good girl.”

“Really? Candy?”

“I read that most smokers have an oral fixation and having something to suck on helps quench the urge to smoke.” 

“What! I don’t have an o-or…_ that_ _kind _of fixation!” mortified, Marinette couldn’t even speak those lewd words as a deep blush creep up her cheeks. 

“The point is, we’re going to reprogram your addiction so you won’t fall back into bad habits.”

Marinette really wanted to correct her friend about the misunderstanding with the cigarettes but at the same time, seeing all this effort she's put in for her well-being, she can’t bring herself to do it. Also, Alya might interrogate her about where she truly had been so it’s best to avoid that. On the bright side, she got free candy.

On the other hand, rumors did come up and people are questioning about their strange “habits”. 

Nino even joked about his girlfriend might be having an affair with her best friend. Alya - in her usual quick-witted fashion - elevated the joke by replying that “you found out our secret just as we’re planning to run away and elope”. Adrien thought it was a good opportunity to join in by playfully adding “don’t worry, bro, I’ll still walk you down the aisle” in which Nino bumped fists with him with a “Thanks, bro, you always got my back!” So while they laugh and plan their imaginary back-up-friendship-elopement wedding, Marinette sulks quietly while sucking on her candy to keep from screaming. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't remember what led me to research about smoking bans in France that led to this... Don't smoke, kids. Or pick up strange things off the ground.
> 
> Comments, critiques and any weird scenarios to get get away from a crowd (to secretly transform and save the world) are welcomed. It doesn't have to only be school/class-related.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Found perfect picture to represent Nino and Adrien's broship: https://niyes-lahiffe.tumblr.com/post/189517462209/lmao-adrien-and-nino


	3. “I don’t need to be here! I’m out!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vive la révolution!

To be perfectly honest, Marinette honestly does not remember how things got to this point. One moment, they were in class quietly listening to Ms. Bustier giving a history lecture about the 1900s and the next Marientte boldy stormed out of the classroom to save Paris from another akuma attack. 

Technically it all started when she felt her phone vibrating and heard the whispers of those who were brave enough to sneak a peek at their phones during class about a sudden akuma appearing and the extreme damage it was causing. The good news according to them was that it’s all the way on the other side of town so the school isn’t within the range of danger. The bad news is that it’s far from them which will take longer for Ladybug to get there, beat it and return to class.

Even worse, her teacher has already warned her about her excessive excuse of leaving to the restroom during class so she won’t be able to get away. From the feel of the endless texts she’s getting from her phone, this akuma means serious business. She can only hope that her partner would get there in time and not be killed. With fear and panic coursing through her veins, she can only vaguely listen to her teacher talk before slamming her hands on the desk. Which led to…

“Marinette, I don’t think you understa-” Ms. Bustier tried to say before getting cut off by her student standing up with a fierce expression. 

“No,  _ you _ don’t understand! I will not stand behind these false lies being taught in class! I’m going to go out to find out the truth myself! _Vive la révolution!_” the girl pumped her fist up in the air as she stomped out of the room with her book bag under her other arm, leaving her teacher and classmates staring after her in bafflement.

“Woah. I never thought Marinette would be that passionate about bread.”

“Neither did I.” Alya added, surprised that she never knew about this despite being her best friend. “But then again, her family  _ does _ own a bakery.”

Another brief silence before Adrien made a show of getting a text from his cellphone and raising his hand to ask, “Um, sorry. Ms. Bustier, I just got a message about a sudden photoshoot so can I please be excused?”

A little over an hour later after defeating the Akuma and restoring all the damages to the city, Marinette had to rush home to do a quick research about bread-related history during the 1900s when her brain finally cooled down and processed what she had done in class. She wanted to curse her stupidity under pressure and almost resigned herself to get punished in class the next day. 

However, luck was on her side when they got a visit from her reunited grandfather, Rolland Dupain. Seeing as he’s a traditional baker, she asked her grandfather Dupain for his expertise on bread and it’s history which later somehow resulted in him forcefully volunteering to come with her to class the next day to give a very passionate speech about the history of bread during his time around the same century. 

“You want to know the true reason why there was a law that banned workers from starting at 4am in 1920? I’ll tell you why. It’s not because of war or politics, hah! It’s bread! How’d you expect hard working bakers to prepare bread for everyone on time for breakfast? You don’t! That’s how the baguette, France's pride and joy, saved the day!”

“And that’s why March 21st is now known as National French Bread Day.” Marinette ended and turned in her report and power-point that she and her grandfather spent all night working on to her teacher who thanked her and promised to add it in her future lessons.

It was both embarrassing and awe-inspiring. Many classmates that day have a new appreciation for bread and know now not to start any feud between bread with Marinette or her family’s bakery. 

Marinette was just glad that she got away with it all and no one questioned about her weird excuse for leaving the class at that time. So she’s safe and hopefully never have to experience another embarrassing scene like this anytime soon… 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You will sit down this-”

“No! How dare you try to teach us false information! I’m going to go find evidence to prove you wrong! Vive la révolution!”

Until another akuma alarm happened again during her science class. Just be glad that the topic for the day was about yeast and germination so Marinette was able to get through another outburst and storm out of the room. Let’s just say that Grandpa Dupain made another appearance the next day and brought their family’s heirloom of yeast as he gave them another stern and passionate lecture of the power of yeast and their ability to literally last forever. 

Thank goodness, Ms. Mendeleiev is an eccentric scientist who was also interested in the discussion and was more than thrilled to have a live specimen to study firsthand in the class. It was again, very educational and believable that no one suspected a thing. 

Unfortunately, her notoriety for being the Bread Girl continues. Makes her want to rye. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad "Bakerix" exists so I can make this chapter work. Bread facts.


	4. “I’m going to vomit.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To Ri2’s suggestion “I've developed a sudden allergy to Lila!"

Okay. Marinette is in a predicament here. 

The original plan for the day was supposed to be an outing with her friends - just the girls - since they haven’t hung out together for awhile due to schedules not matching and Marinette having to leave because of akumas... or Lila. At the beginning, the girls gave her a hard time because of her animosity towards the new Italian girl but when Marinette took Adrien’s advice to hold back, the others eased up too.

While they do feel bad that the two can’t get along, the group has tried their best to accommodate both girls as best as they could. Which lead them to plan separate events where they’d invite only Lila for one day and only Marinette on another. It’s a hassle but the things they’ll do for their friends are worth it. And by their tally, it’s Marinette’s turn. Today’s event was going to be just them having a little picnic at the park. Simple and easy...

Unfortunately, someone must’ve spilled - or had overheard - the plan because just before the girls set the blanket and basket down on the picnic table, Lila appeared. And she didn’t come alone. It appeared that she invited all the boys too.

“Oh, I thought it was a class picnic so I told everyone about it.” Lila explained to them in her faux innocent tone, looking guilty. “I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret. I’m so sorry!” 

The girls shared a worried expression at the situation before casting an apologetic look towards Marinette who remained expressionless. They mouthed “sorry” and “will make it up to you” before turning to console Lila, who’s still sniffling in her hands. The boys with her were confused with the odd situation so they either stood by the crying girl or make it to the picnic basket.

Since they weren’t expecting many people, so there wasn’t enough food to go around, causing more awkwardness. As some went to comfort Lila, the other girls pulled their boyfriends to the side to grill them on how this happened. On the side, Marinette was just trying to hold herself together from getting angry and remain calm with Adrien’s words in her head. It also helped that she can feel Tikki’s warm support through against her leg through her purse.

She knew Lila is doing this on purpose to get a rise out of her so she shouldn’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction. But boy, was it annoying! 

Finally done with her crying act for now, LIla wiped away the non-existent tears and then walked up to the picnic table where Marinette was concentrating on setting up the napkins.

“Adrien says he couldn’t make it since he’s so busy but wanted me to drop off a snack for the picnic.” Lila said aloud for everyone to hear as she set down a package of what could be assumed as expensive gourmet cheese. And then under her breath so only Marinette could hear, she mocked, “I made sure to pick it up from his place when I was invited in.”

That got the heroine’s blood boiling, knuckles gripped white, and teeth biting on her lips to keep from contradicting the liar and exposing her ploy. But her promise with Adrien for peace…

“I’ll be sure to thank him for his contribution later.” Marinette pushed out flatly through gritted teeth.

The Italian girl looked at her with a smug expression. “Oh. You don’t have to, Marinette, I can tell him later when I go visit him again. Since I’m welcomed there, you know.”

One of the girls felt the tension brewing and quickly signaled for someone to seperate them. Rose and Mylene stepped up beside Lila, each hooking her arms and tried to casually lead her away while asking her to tell them more about her trip to Achu and charities with Prince Ali. Alya appeared next to Marinette and rubbed her shoulders.

“You okay?” she whispered, concerned as she tried to loosen her tense friend. “We really don’t know what happened but Nino said they were all called to meet here suddenly and then… this happened.”

Marinette just shook her head. “It’s fine. We can’t do anything about it now.”

“I’m really sorry, Marinette. We’ll set up another hang out time when Lila’s flying out or something. Maybe a sleepover? Just movies and snacks with the girls?” 

“Yeah. That sounds good.” she gave a weak smile before frowning at the near empty basket. “Looks like we’re out of food too.”

Alya groaned. “Boys. All they do is just eat and be useless.”

“It’s okay. I’ll just go back to my house to pick up some leftovers or something.” Marinette offered, not wanting to stay.

“No way, girl! It’s your day.” Alya argued. “Nino and I can go pick up some food. Or we can just move the hangout spot somewhere else.”

Marinette was about to counter that it’ll be too much of a hassle when she noticed a black blur hopping over the rooftops at a quick speed. If Chat Noir is out, that must mean there’s an akuma! No one got an alarm notice from their phones yet so she has to remain calm. But that also means that she can’t use the run-away-to-safety excuse to hide and change.

“A-Actually Alya, I’m sure everyone’s tired getting here so you should just stay. I have no problem getting more snacks. My place is really close by.” Marinette tried to slide around her, pointing to the direction of her house. “So I’ll just go…”

But Alya blocked her path and physically turned her around back to the table. “Uh uh. Nope. You’re staying here to enjoy. We’ll go and get the food, right, Nino?”

“Yeah, it’s no biggie, dude.” 

Now Marinette’s stuck there with no excuse to leave. If she disappeared now, someone will notice and then tell Alya, and then they’ll feel guilty which in turn will make her feel guilty, and then she’ll have to explain why she left without hurting their feelings or blame Lila, but that’ll be suspicious because the report of the akuma will come out and with Alya being obsessed with everything Ladybug-related, she might put two and two together about her absence and- AHH! It’ll be a disaster!

To make matters worse, she felt Tikki buzzing from her purse like a phone on vibrate which usually means Chat is trying to contact Ladybug when they’re not transformed. For him to call, it must be something bad with the akuma. 

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. What to do. What to do. 

Activate Marinette-solving-vision ON! Okay! Trash can. Cheese. Finger. Lila’s face. What does this all mean?!

Marinette covered her mouth with both of her hands to physically muffle herself from anyone hearing her screaming loudly. But just after her body jolted from the inner scream, her blue eyes widen as realization hits her before she curled her body from her waist and curse her whatever fate that put her in this situation.

Is this karma for being Ladybug? For using Lucky Charm all the time? Might as well give her the Black Cat Miraculous since she’s so full of bad luck!

Looking around, Marinette took note of how everyone was distracted by Lila chatting away about herself. For once, she’s thankful that all the focus was on that liar so they wouldn’t see what she herself was up to. Although she cannot quietly leave without causing her friends to panic, she knew she had to make up a legitimate reason to go by herself. And with what she has currently, she must make due.

She’s going to hate this so much. This is 100% Lila’s fault.

On the picnic table, Marinette picked up the block of cheese and read the package: [Le Brebis de Wavreumont. ‘Sheep of Wavreumont’. Semi-soft cheese. Belgium.]

She peeled open the seal. The small whiff of putrid smell that reminded her instantly of a used litter box had her eyes watering. For a moment, she wavered between just smelling it as opposed to actually eating it. But reasoned that to get the authentic reaction, she must consume… this  _ challenging _ cheese…

Just a small piece. Maybe add a little jam to help it along the way. She hoped. 

Marinette just sliced a thin, matchstick size of the cheese and slathered it with the only jam within her reach - peach? - and prepared to eat it. Even before lifting it up, it was already so pungent that she cringed and held it an arms length away as she gave herself another peptalk. 

She could hear Tikki’s voice now in her head. “You can do it, Marinette! For all of Paris! You’re the strongest Ladybug ever!” 

Before she could regret it, she shoved the piece of cheese into her mouth, chewed like a food processor and swallowed. Her first thought was ‘It tastes like it smells’. Her second thought was ‘The jam did nothing but enhanced the taste’. Then the intensity of the complex flavor hits her, sending shockwaves throughout her mind and body. And now. The moment that she was looking for. 

“Marinette?” said girl looked up to see her best friend, Alya giving her a concerned look. “You okay, girl?”

She tried to give her a smile that turned more of a grimace and nodded. She didn’t dare to open her mouth which is clamp shut and slightly quivering. 

The young reporter wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure? You’re looking a little green.”

Marinette tried to hold on a little longer, but felt something touching the back of her throat. Immediately, she ran to the nearest trash can, leaned down and… lost her lunch. And breakfast. And maybe some snacks from last night. It caught everyone’s attention and surprised.

Alya quickly ran to her side with a napkin and a water bottle, which Marinette gratefully accepted but kept her head down over the trash can in case there’s a round two. “Marinette! What happened?!”

Marinette pointed a shaky finger to the table. “C… Cheese.”

“Cheese?” all eyes were on the open package of cheese sitting innocently on the table.

“I think… I’m allergic… to something in it…” Marinette was able to say, swishing the water in her mouth in hopes of washing away the leftover taste. “I-I’m going… to go home… to take medicine… just in case…”

And before Alya or her friends could offer to walk her home, Marinette speed away with a hand over her mouth. The class just watched her tiny back disappear around the corner and back at the cheese with caution. 

“Um. Who brought the cheese?” 

No one said anything but eyes were on Lila who they remembered announcing she brought it. Looks like someone got some explaining to do.

\---

The next day at school, students were chatting with each other about the akuma attack from yesterday as they went to their class. Adrien entered the classroom to see Nino and Alya hovering over Marinette who was looking down at the table with a frown.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” he asked, sitting down his seat.

All eyes turned on to him and he can’t help but feel that Alya and Nino were… glaring at him? And Marinette looks guilty? What is going on?

“Um…” Marinette opened her mouth to speak but Alya cut in.

“Look, Adrien, I don’t know how rich people live and I know you’re not a bad guy or anything,” Alya started, wagging her finger at him like a disappointed mother. “but you should really check on your food to make sure it’s not expired before letting people eat it.”

The model just blinked in confusion. “Uh, okay?”

His best bro sighed and patted his shoulder in sympathy. “Dude, we understand that you can’t come out because of your dad and that’s okay. You don’t have to force yourself to spend stuff for us. We’re friends for you, not your money.”

“Thanks?” He is really out of the loop and turn to Marinette for help. “Sorry, but I really don’t understand. Did something happen, Marinette?”

Being the only one besides Adrien who knew the truth about Lila being a liar; she took pity on him and said her words carefully - again the peace treaty. “Um, Lila brought the cheese you’ve given her to bring to the picnic yesterday since she said you couldn’t come. And I, uh… think it went bad?”

“Bad? Girl, you almost got like, an allergic reaction and threw up!” Alya corrected, angry. She knew that her best friend has a crush on the boy and didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she has to think about her wellbeing too!

“What!” the boy gasped and quickly examine Marinette’s face, which slowly turned red from the attention. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse or a doctor?”

“N-No, it’s okay! I’m min-fine! It was really just a small thing, nothing to worry about! Hahaha! Ha…”

That’s when her words finally registered to his brain. “Wait, there was a picnic yesterday?”

“Yeah, dude, didn’t you get the text from Lila?” Nino showed him his phone log with the group message. “She said that she went to pick you up at your place but got the cheese instead.”

“ _ Cheese _ ?! I’ve never given Lila cheese.” Adrien put a hand to his chest to hold Plagg back from jumping out when he heard the word. “And I definitely didn’t know about the picnic.”

The three with the exception of Marinette appeared surprised by his strong denial. 

“Everyone thought you knew since she was telling us how she’s got  _ permission _ to enter your house and told you.” Marinette kept her tone light but Adrien can see her eyes trying to hint at him subtle truth. 

That made him frown as he recalled the last time Lila forced herself into his house with the excuse to study. It got him, Natalie, and the Gorilla into trouble and his father didn’t allow him out of the house besides work and school for weeks. As for the cheese, he did remember her snooping around his room. After the stunt with trying to get Marinette expelled, he wouldn’t be surprised if she’d stolen something from him too.

He had warned her about hurting his friends, so it’s time to show her he’s serious. 

A devious plan formulated in his mind as he asked as calmly as he could, “Do you happen to know what cheese she gave you?”

“Le Brebis de Wavreumont.” Marinette instantly replied with a dull, distant look. It had left a…  _ very strong _ impression on her. One she can never forget. Even if she wanted to. 

“Ah. I see.” Just as he said that, Lila entered the room and quickly went to his side. 

“Good morning, Adrien!” she greeted, leaning against Marinette’s desk to block her view. “I’ve been having a little problem with some of my lessons but then I remembered how well you helped me last time so if you’re not too busy today, maybe I can go to your place again?”

Putting on a friendly but apologetic smile, Adrien kindly replied, “Actually, Lila, I can’t help you for a while since I’ll be busy with my own lessons. You see, that cheese you took yesterday was part of an experiment I was working on for a while now but after I heard what happened, I’ll have to redo it again.”

“What? An experiment?” Alya and Nino gasped.

“Yeah, it was for a science project from my extra lessons assigned by my father a few weeks ago. I don’t know how Lila could’ve mistakenly took it since I left it to be undisturbed.” Like a sad boy wronged, Adrien sighed forlornly. “Looks like I won’t be able to hang out with everyone until it’s done.”

The others turned to comfort him, knowing full well how hard it was for him to get out of the house because of his overly strict and controlling father. 

“Maybe Lila can explain to your dad that it was her fault so he won’t blame you.” Nino suggested, considering that it was technically true from their perspective.

At the side, the Italian girl felt the smile on her face stiffened while she raged inside at the other boy’s suggestions. To have her take the fall for someone else and be punished? How dare he try to put the blame on her? As if she would confess to any crime. If she’d had her way, she would turn it on Marinette. 

“We don’t have to go that far since your dad doesn’t know yet, right?” Lila tried to steer the direction away. “Why don’t I help you with the experiment? If we work together, I’m sure we can get it done just as fast.”

“But Lila, aren’t you already behind in your lessons?” Adrien brought up. “I don’t know if you’ll understand the process. Plus I really shouldn’t bother you since you’ll be so busy catching up yourself.”

Lila wanted to insist when Alya saw an opportunity and jumped on it. “Actually, Sunshine, if you need an assistant, Marinette is available.”

Sitting quietly in her seat, the dark-haired girl was enjoying the show when suddenly she got pulled in the play. “W-Wait what?”

Lila sneered a little and started, “I don’t think-”

“That’s actually a great idea, Alya!” Adrien interrupted, smiling brightly to Marinette. “I hope you don’t mind me using you as a guinea pig for a while, Marinette. Since you did  _ technically _ ate my experiment.”

“You can use me however you like- I mean, for the experiment! No, wait! You can experiment on me- ah! No! Ugh!” she smacked her face and groaned before slowly speaking again. “What I mean to say is yes, Adrien, I’ll help you with your experiment if you’re fine with me.”

“Great! I’ll let my father and Natalie know so they’ll let you in whenever you come over.” Adrien flashed her blinding smile, already taking out his phone to send a quick message before anyone could add. “I’ll text you later on what days I’ll be free and if it works for you.”

Marinette could only quietly nod. Nino and Alya were grinning like loons, looking both proud and smug at their friends progression and their impromptu plan to get them to spend time together actually succeeding. The only person who wasn’t satisfied with the results was Lila who wanted to argue but the bell for class so start has rung so she can only stomp back to her seat.

Although Marinette had to experience a horrific experience on her taste buds and painfully empty her guts, if it resulted in her having some alone time with the boy of her dreams, she would probably eat it again. Maybe.

**Extra: **

That night, Adrien set a small latch on the side of his odor-sealed, cheese cabinet. It doesn’t have a lock so Natalie or his father wouldn’t be suspicious of it but he did choose a specific latch that would let him know if it has been touched or not placed back the way he remembered. 

Despite having to deal with Plagg’s complaint of having his precious cheese stolen, eaten and thrown away; Adrien was happy with the outcome. He had an excuse to be separated from Lila for a while (at least from his home), have one less stinky cheese to deal with, and get a chance to have a friend over at his place to “study”. And he was glad it was Marinette, his first friend (with the exception of Chloe)

He’d then ask Plagg what he’d thought of cheese in general. Sure, he knows the black kwami loves the stuff but maybe he should try to get a better understanding of how the tiny God of Destruction thinks. 

“Juice of a cow that has been left to mold and solidify into this… block of… odor, texture and flavor. That is what cheese is. And if you add that with the vomit of a bee, then it’ll be divine.” Plagg summarized his opinion of cheese and looked at his Chosen.

His expression reminded him of how the Bee and Ox kwamis’ reacted when he gave them the same reply. A scrunched up face full of confused repulsion. Hah, what do they know with their unrefined palettes?

**Bonus: (a small scene of the “experiment” survey)**

“It was footy.”

“Footy? How would you know what a foot taste like?”

“It’s more like the smell reminded me of feet, so it’s what I thought of when I tasted it.”

“I guess that makes more  _ sense _ . I’d never pictured you be the type to try tasting feet.”

“Yeah, considering how I always put my foot in my mouth all the time.” she mumbled under her breath.

Adrien surprisingly heard it and sputtered out a laugh - the same laugh he did after their first failed umbrella trade. “Pfft- ha ha! Was that a joke?”

“Oh my god, I didn’t mean to say that out loud! I can’t believe you heard that!” she buried her face in her hands. “Now you’ll think I’m one of those weird foot fetish people.”

“That’s not true. I don’t think you’re weird. But I might steal that joke of yours for later.” he smirked. “Your way of thinking is very creative, Marinette. Maybe that’s where you get all your ideas and inspirations.”

“I-I guess. Since it got all the rich kids stealing from me- ah! Wait, I take it back! It wasn’t meant to sound as bad! Ahh, what’s wrong with me?!”

Not offended at all, Adrien just continued to laugh at this surprisingly fun, unfiltered side of his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably not what you were expecting but will give you a salty-Lila story one day (one in the making). Also cheese references from Keith of “Try Guys” on youtube.
> 
> How much weirder can I make this? And do you want to see some from Adrien's POV?


	5. "I think I'm... a furry?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I don't know what the requirement are to be a furry... and I'm too scare to ask" - TheOdd1sOut

When Master Fu told Marinette that he’ll be training her to be the next Guardian of the Miraculous, one of her first lessons were to learn about the Kwamis and their powers. She had relied on her instincts with the few Miraculous on the top row of the Box as instructed by Master Fu, but now she’s to learn about the others too. And boy, were there more magical jewelry than she’d expected. Not to mention all the interesting and different personalities of each small Gods that comes with them.

With so much new information, Marinette’s brain would’ve exploded from overload if she didn’t have such a soothing, patient and responsible Kwami like Tikki guiding her. Tikki takes her job seriously - unlike a certain stinky sock - and wants to encourage her chosen to succeed because she is the best Ladybug she’s ever had. Also, other than Wayzz or Nooro, Tikki is one few Kwamis that knew the most (as much as they’re allowed to know by the Guardians) about the Miraculous. It also helps that she’s friendly with all of the Kwamis.

To make things easier for herself, Marinette has started a new notebook with notes about each Kwamis and their powers. Tikki protested at the beginning for fear of it falling into the wrong hands like with The Grimoire book or even exposes her identity. But Marinette has already came up with precaution by coming up with her own set of keys and writing it in code. Most of it would be doodles or drawings of animals and short words or abbreviations that only she would understand. So on the off chance if anyone _ did _ happened upon it, they wouldn’t understand it anyways.

Besides, Marinette has learned from experience of keeping her journals and art books protected from being stolen or tampered with. So she should be well prepared… right?

\---

It’s another day of school, class has ended and everyone is on their way home or club activities. In a quiet isolated corner of the library, a girl was quietly scribbling in her black journal. With her new training and knowledge as a Guardian, Marinette has been spending a lot of time thinking up some new strategies and plans for upcoming battles to get the job done quicker and reducing their stress. Although most of them are just theories, it does give her a sense of relief to be prepared of possibilities and not have to come up with new plans on the spot in the heat of battle.

“For close range battles, maybe I can team Chat with Ryuko as frontal attacks.” Marinette mutters to herself as she draws a tiny cat head next to a cute dragon, noting ‘OFF’ for offense on top. Then she drew a ladybug under it with lines connecting to the cat and dragon, writing a ‘NEUT’ for neutral next to it. 

“As backup, Viperion and Carapace are best.” she continued, doodling an adorable snake and turtle under the ladybug with ‘DEF’ for defense below. Her brows scrunched thoughtfully as she added a fox head next to the ladybug with an arrow pointing toward the top with the cat/dragon and another arrow on the bottom with the snake/turtle. “Rena Rouge can use illusion from a distance or attack in front too.”

Thinking more about how versatile any of the heroes could be, Marinette keeps coming up with multiple match ups and connecting lines that the page can almost be mistaken for a sports journal. Hmm. So many possibilities. “I should talk to Chat in the next patrol to get his opinion.”

The girl started in her seat when the bell rang and realized that school was over. Quickly gathering her things in her school bag, she rushed out the door and immediately collided with another person. Both she and the other person fell onto the floor, scattering their bags and items with them. Wincing, Marinette quickly blurted out apologies at the same time as the other when she looked up.

“S-Sorry!”

“No, I’m sorry! I wasn’t- Oh, hi, Marc.” Marinette greeted, recognizing the shy writer. 

“Hi, Marinette,” the other returned her smile quietly. “We really need to stop meeting like this.”

“Just the effect of befriending a clumsy girl like me.” they joked and giggled before gathering their things and getting up. “Are you on your way to the Art Club?”

“Yeah, Nathaneal and I are trying to think up of some ideas to spread our group name to a bigger audience.” 

“That’s a great idea! I’m sure with both your talent and styles, you’ll attract a lot of new audiences.”

The young writer blushed, hugging his treasured black notebook against his chest. “T-Thanks, I hope so.”

“Ah! I forgot something in my locker again! Sorry, got to run, see you, Marc!”

He watched her rushed down the stairs, knocked on the arm rail but caught herself before she fell and continued on. He shook his head with a fond smile. Yep, still that same girl they know. May she never change.

Marc entered the room where the Art Club is and saw Nathaniel waving him over. Ever since they’ve been introduced by Marinette, the two has created a few original comics and posted them online with positive reviews. The two had been talking about starting a sort-of fundraiser or possible collaboration with other artists or fans in hope of gaining more experiences. While they love to do their own original plots, they do understand the importance of networking.

So despite being very shy and introverted by nature, they agreed to try to make a change and step out of their comfort zone. It also helped that they have the support of their friends from the club and again, inspired by Marinette who was also as shy and quiet as them but was able to become class president.

“Sorry, I’m late. Ran into Marinette on the way here. Literally.” Marc said, sitting down next to the redhead.

The other just smiled knowingly. “No problem. Let’s talk about some of the ideas you were telling me.”

“Yeah, I wrote them down here.” Marc flipped open his journal only to frown in confusion.

Nathaniel saw his expression and was worried. “What’s wrong?”

“This isn’t my journal.”

“What?”

He checked the cover and turned the notebook to the front page and saw the initial ‘MDC’ in a familiar script. “It’s Marinette’s. We must’ve switched when we crashed into each other earlier.”

“That’s weird.” The artist can’t help but comment, recalling how the girl would always embellish her journals and notebooks in her signature pink and white spotted design or flower motifs. So it’s out of the ordinary for her to have a plain black notebook. “I guess we should ask one of the girls to call- what are you doing?!”

He cried out before grabbing Marc’s wrist that was about to flip through the pages of the notebook. Then he turned to look around to see if anyone was watching them, fear and panic reflecting on his face as if they’re committing a crime. 

“I just want to see what she wrote inside. I didn’t get a chance earlier when I found out.” Marc whispered back, not sure why but suddenly felt caught up in a secret.

“You can’t do that! This could be her private journal or something.” Nathaniel whispered back.

“Maybe it’s just her class notes.”

“But she never used this before in class.”

“Maybe she started a new notebook?”

“How can you be sure?”

“But aren’t you curious?”

“What?” Nathaniel let go of Marc to nervously to rub the back of his neck. “Maybe? But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, it could be a good source material for ideas.”

“That makes it even worse, isn’t it?!” 

“I mean, yeah.” Marc admitted. There was an awkward moment of silence before he started again. “Still… you have been saying that you’d want to make something a little more believable.”

Nathaniel eyed him warily but nodded. “Right.”

“Although I’ve written stories of Ladybug’s perspective, it’s still mostly fiction based on imagination.”

“Marc…”

“And this is could be a genuine girl’s journal. Shouldn’t we take advantage of this opportunity?”

“I guess? But…” But Marc can see he’s getting through his defenses and curiosity is winning over. “I don’t know how I feel about this.”

“Besides, she’s read my book without permission before...” Although she did admit the truth afterwards.

“...and she did saw my drawings without asking…” Technically Chloe made him drop his sketches for everyone to see.

“So…” Marc dragged out the word as they both come to a tentative agreement. “it should be fair for us to look at hers too… right?”

The artist just sighed in defeat and nodded. “Fine, okay, let’s look at it before anyone else notice and never speak of this again.”

Eagerly, the two huddled together and opened the journal to see inside. And it was not what they were expecting. Instead of paragraphs of girly confessions or even sketches of fashion designs, the pages were actually filled with cute doodles of animals and insects all over. Little notes and comments were scribbled on the margins with arrows and lines in different colors going all over but it made no sense to them.

“Um, Nathanael? What are we looking at?” Marc can’t help but ask.

The redhead took his time looking at each doodle and try to decipher what it could mean. Like a puzzle, he slowly started to notice a pattern. It helped that it was something he and Marc are very familiar with themselves for him to see it.

“I think that is supposed to be Ladybug,” he said, pointing at a red ladybug drawing and then next to it. “And that’s Chat Noir.”

Realizing what he meant, Marc continued on. “Ooh! So that would make the fox and turtle drawing as Rena Rouge and Carapace. Even Queen Bee is here.”

The two continued to point out to each new doodle that matched up with the newer heroes that were recently announced. With that part of the mystery solved, they felt accomplished. But there’s still another problem: What does it all mean?

“Why would Marinette keep a notebook of all the heroes? Is it for a new design she’s working on?”

“I don’t think it is. Maybe she’s helping Alya’s blog in making a heroes’ profile?” Again, Nathaniel pointed out to the words and lines. “Like here, she put down Ladybug and Chat Noir as ‘main’. Maybe as main heroes?”

“I guess. But what about the others?” The looked at the other heroes also lined up together. “For Rena Rouge and Carapace, she wrote them as ‘best’. The dragon Ryuko and snake Viperion are ‘potential’. And Queen Bee is marked ‘wip’.”

“That’s a lot of pairs.” They turned the page to see that the same set up of doodles but this time the lines connect with three heroes together and so on and so forth. “I’m starting to think it might not be something for the Ladyblog.”

Being an artist and writer, a strange but logical idea starts to formulate in their minds at what these could potentially mean. But before either of them could voice out their thoughts, a loud sound of someone rushing through the door drew their attention. Panting against the door frame was Marinette with an identical black journal in her hands.

“Sorry, is Marc here? I think we swapped note-” she started to say before she looked at the pair sitting on the table. Then she saw what’s on the table, paled in horror before slowly raising her eyes up to meet their deer-caught-in-headlights looks as well. “-book.”

There was an awkward pause. Then they spoke. At the same time.

“I can explain-!” “We can explain-!”

Silence.

“Ah-” “Um-” “Wha-”

Pause. Awkwardly curl in their shoulders and hold their arm. A shy blush on their faces.

A moment later, the girl walked towards the table and gently put the black notebook on the center as she took a seat across from them.

Clearing her throat, she starts, “I uh… think this is yours, Marc.”

“T-Thanks. Kinda figured we’d uh… swapped.” 

“Yeah. I guessed you’d probably had to read it to find out too, huh? Not that I’m blaming you or anything!” she quickly said, waving her hands around. “I mean, I know how tempting it is looking at another person’s work.”

She remembered peeking into Marc’s notebook which prompted her to introduced him to Nathaniel which caused that tough akuma battle and embarrassing mess. 

In hopes of avoiding any suspicion or more awkward tension, Marinette tried to slyly reach for her journal and leave. “Well, I’ll just take this back and let you two continue your work-”

“Marinette, we saw what you wrote.” Nathaniel blurted. “Or drew.”

“And we know.” Marc finished.

“Impossible! No one should be able to - I mean, uh, I don’t know what you guys are talking about!” She tried to pass her blunder with a forced laugh. But as usual, her ability to lie is impossible. At their pitiful expressions directed at her, she sighed in defeat. “Please don’t tell anyone! It has to be a secret!”

The boys held up their hands in a placating manner, a little surprised by the urgency of her tone.

“Woah, don’t worry, Marinette, we promised to keep your secret.”

She was relieved that she could trust them but worried about what Master Fu will say when she reports back to him of her blunder. “Thank you, guys. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

They looked bemused but smile nonetheless. “It’s not that big of a deal though, Marinette. I mean, sure it’s a little embarrassing but everyone have their own ships. You just have a lot.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Although I do have some questions about some of your pairings.” Marc pointed to the picture of a triangle with the ladybug, a cat, and bee together. “Like this one, I don’t see how’d you think Chat Noir and Queen Bee would be willing to share Ladybug. I mean, yeah, they both obviously like her but they don’t mesh together by themselves.”

“Uh…”

“I’m more interested in how you’d come up with the Chat Noir, Carapace, and Rena Rouge triangle. Like, who’s after who?” Nathaniel also chimed in, very curious.

Now it was she who is confused. Didn’t they found out she was Ladybug? “Pairing? Triangle?”

The boys nodded. “Yeah, we know you ‘main’ ship is Ladybug and Chat Noir, but we’re curious about your other couple pairings. Like, did you come up with them out of nowhere or got some details from Alya?”

“Oh. OH. Oooh! Er- yeah! From Alya! You know how she’s always chasing the heroes and getting interviews with them. So she’s always telling me a little about them every time.” Marinette don’t know how she could be so lucky but will not refuse this save. 

“That makes sense. Although I’m surprised you’d want to keep it a secret from her. I’m sure she’ll support your ships considering how much she ships LadyNoir too.”

Marinette made a guilty expression. “Well, I might’ve been giving her a hard time about that at the beginning. Then I guess her influences rubbed off on me and I’m too uh… ashamed to admit it.”

They emphasized her plight and again, swore secrecy. Afterwards they encourage her to give them explanations and insights of her choices. And she has to come up with them on the fly, going by some general half truths the public knows and some of her “fan-canons”.

** _10 Minutes Later:_ **

“I don’t see why Chat Noir and Rena Rouge can’t be paired together. I mean, they’re both similar in personality with the fighting-heads-on-in-battle thinking.”

“But it’s them being opposites that creates a perfect balance that makes them perfect for one another. Like if two wilds mixed, it’s chaos. But if one’s chill and the other id wild, then they even out each other.”

“Does that also imply with Ladybug and Queen Bee?”

“Well uh- I mean, based by the balance chart… technically yes.”

“You don’t seem to like the pair though.”

“I’m not a big fan but… it does make sense with Bee being wild and Ladybug being chill or vice versa.”

“By that logic, Carapace and Chat Noir would balance each other out too.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right! And Rena Rouge would be balance with Ladybug too.”

“Actually, Ladybug and Carapace can balance almost any pair since they’re the chill bunch. But now I’m starting to notice there’s a long of wild ones in the team.”

“Either we change some of them into chill characters or they’ll end up as poly-pairs.” 

** _20 Minutes Later:_ **

“Okay, but what if - and keep an open mind - what _ IF _ each of them develop animals traits from the Miraculous?”

“Animal traits? You mean like wanting to eat bugs and flowers or fish and birds?”

“Hey, I’m just saying, there’s footage of Chat Noir licking himself like a real cat before.”

“And he purrs too. Oh my god, you might be right.”

“He actually purrs?”

“Uh, Alya told me once she heard him when Ladybug scratches his chin.”

“Wait, does that mean at winter time, Ladybug and Queen be could go into hibernation since their bugs?”

“Then what about the Heroes who are mammals?” Gasp. “What about mating seasons?”

“But they’re underage aren’t they?!”

“Actually, I can see them cuddling each other. Here look, there’s videos of different animals befriending each other too.”

“Aww, is that a cat sleeping on top of a turtle? So cute!”

“There also some pictures of animals with ladybugs on them. Like this one on top of a cat. Here’s another with a fox.”

“Oh. There’s a video of someone putting a butterfly on a cat. And the cat is frozen stiff. Heh.”

“Wait is that a dog eating a butterfly?! Maybe we should ask ladybug if there’s a dog Miraculous out there.”

“That kind of sound like a good idea. Oh, can we find a cat and snake video?”

“There’s one of them kissing… nope, my mistake, they’re fighting.”

“Noo! My ship!”

** _30 Minutes Later:_ **

“Don’t judge me for what I’m going to say next, because it is a sub-genre. Full on animal instincts.”

“Full on? What’s that?”

“Marc, no. That’s too much.”

“She’s enter this world, she’s bound to run into it. Better to break it to her gently now than by surprise.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

“So, Marinette, you know how we’ve been talking about them having some animal traits? Now imagine, them being animals first in human forms.”

“Okay? I still don’t see what’s so bad.”

“Now, imagine the animal nature videos we’ve just watched with all the hunting but… in human forms.”

“... oh my god. Oh my god! OH MY GOD!”

“I think we’ve gone too far.”

“I can’t unsee it now!”

“You might be right.”

“But where’s the romance if they’ll just eat each other?!”

“Well… there is this thing called… vore.”

“NOOO!”

Before they could continue, Marinette’s phone rang and she finally noticed how late it’s gotten. Her parents are trying to reach her.

“Ah! I forgot I promised to help my parents after school!” Marinette quickly packed her notebook with new added notes and doodles from Nathaniel and Marc.

“Ah, we also didn’t get a chance to come up with any plans to spread our audience.” Although they got some new insights and inspirations from this impromptu meeting, they did miss the point. “What are we going to do now?”

As Marinette reached the door, an idea came to mind. “Actually, you should try posting a commission add to the Ladyblog to see if anyone is interested there. I got some customers who wanted some custom Hero-theme merch before. Just email Alya for permission.”

“That’s a great idea! We’ll email her tonight.”

“Thanks for all the help, Marinette!”

“Don’t mention it! Er, also, really don’t mention… it.”

“We promise. We won’t tell your secret.”

“Ha ha ha. Thanks again!”

\---

_ /The “Other” White Meat - by GuiltiMouse/ _

_ The Fox Miraculous Holder circled the Sheep Miraculous Holder slowly, his sharp eyes never leaving the shivering body as he licks his lips. _

_ “You’re new. Never seen you around before.” the Fox comments, his thick bushy tail slyly wrapped around the other boy in a teasing manner. He can feel the Sheep flinched at his touch and can’t help but get excited. “Strayed away from your flock, sheepy?” _

_ “P-Please, Mister Fox, let me go.” The frightened sheep begged, inching away. _

_ “There’s no need to be afraid. I just want to help. I’m very familiar with this part of the forest.” _

_ “I-I need to get b-back to the f-farm.” _

_ “The farm? Well, why didn’t you say so, I know a shortcut right here.” The fox nudges him through a hollowed log. “Just go through there and you’ll be there by dinner time.” _

_ The sun was going down quick and as much as the sheep didn’t want to enter the dark tunnel, he can’t help but obey the predator. With fox following behind, he sped to a trot in hopes of reaching the end quicker. But when he got there, his heart dropped as he found himself trapped in an abandoned cellar. He looked around, scanning the area for an escape, a crack or hole he can squeeze through before the fox can get him. _

_ Then he saw a hole above him with the moon shining. Over there! Climbing up the steep slope, the sheep clawed his way up and tried to push himself through the hold. But it was too small. So he tried to dig around the hole while pushing. He has to move faster. Quickly before the fox gets him. _

_ He got a shoulder and one arm through the hole. He can see the full moon. Can smell the night’s air. He did it! He’s free` _

_ “Nuh-uh-uh!” the Fox called out before pulling the other’s legs back down into his dwelling. The Sheep can’t help but let out a scared yell but it was lost to the world once he’s back in the Fox’s hold. Tears stream down his face as he felt the other’s breath whispered close against his ear, “Where do you think you’re going, sheep boy?” _

_ With a lick, sharp fangs teasingly nibbled down the pale neck, dragging out a whine from his prey. "Dinner is just starting." _

Marinette jerked her hands away from the keyboard, took deep breaths as she gently pats her face that’s blushing in shame at what she just typed. She looked between her monitor of the story she was suddenly inspired to write after she had Nathaniel and Marc try on the animal ears (a fox and sheep) she made for a fan commission. Then turned her eyes towards the heaven with her hands clamped together like a prayer. 

“What have I become?” she asked with no answers given.

After their meeting, Alya had made an announcement to the class to promote their friend’s open commission that she’s adding to the Ladyblog site section. It was a big hit and they were getting commission for both art comics and short stories. As promised, they kept their promise to never speak about her so-called “shipping book” again. They do consult her about possible ideas for certain pairings.

And recently, Marinette has been getting mixed feelings about her new spontaneous thoughts of ships that she never cared before popping in her head. Which resulted to these instants. She later anonymously emailed the story to Nathaniel and Marc’s comic site and paid for a commission. A few days later, she checked her emails to find a return email with a short comic of her story attached. None of this will be spoken in public ever again.

At the same time, another person got his specially requested comic of Ladybug X Chat Noir in his email inbox too. 

**Bonus:**

"Marinette, please choose the Miraculous that will aid you." Master Fu instructs as he opened the magic box. He watches as his protégé struggles to choose. It's a normal routine by now as she's slowly learning but he felt something different about today.

He sensed her turmoil but couldn’t actually understand it. One moment, she’s going by her instincts as he’d taught her to make a decision. But he’s caught some of her faint mutters about pairings and capabilities. Is she thinking about changing holders? While it’s not forbidden to switch Miraculous, it usually due to certain circumstances. And what is this “genderbent”?

“Marinette?” he calmly interrupted her concentration.

“Y-Yes, Master?”

“Are you having difficulties choosing the right Miraculous?”

“N-No, Master, I was just preoccupied with something at school. Sorry. I’ll focus on work now.”

“If you’re sure. Remember, you can speak to me if you have any concerns.”

“I-I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Master.” 

From her expression, he can see she really wanted to ask him something but is holding back because she’s either too embarrassed? Ashamed? It’s really hard to tell what a young girl is thinking when you’re an old man past 150.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned out longer (could go on longer) than what I had in my head. Inspired by this video scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jQBTKfH1fk [7:04]
> 
> And this post of these shy art kids: https://lotus-duckies.tumblr.com/post/180716867150/the-art-kid-pose
> 
> Happy New Years 2020

**Author's Note:**

> Suggestions and critiques are welcomed.


End file.
